Feeling Hollow
by The Kunoichi
Summary: Ichigo is about to finish off a Hollow, when suddenly, a girl appears out of nowhere and defends it. Who is this girl... and why does she have a mask? OC


_**Feeling Hollow**_

Ichigo Kurosaki stood before his target. A hollow had appeared and tried to attack Karin, his little sister. The bright orange-haired boy glared hatefully at the hollow. He was going to make it pay. He raised Zangetsu and charged. The hollow swung its large hand at him. He dodged and brought his sword down, cutting off the hollow's hand. The masked creature pulled his arm back in pain. Ichigo smirked. This was going to end quickly. He raised his sword for the final blow when suddenly—"STOOOOP!" a voice cried out.

The Kurasaki froze. A girl stood before the hollow her arms stretched out wide, as if protecting it. She had dark black shoulder length hair, some covering her right side of her face. She wore blue short sleeved sweat shirt and dark blue shorts. The girl looked up at him. Her visible green eye was glaring at him, "What do you think you're doing? Why are you hurting him!"

Ichigo stared at the girl. He lowered his zanbato. "You can see that thing and me?"

"Of course I can! And he's not a 'thing'! He has a name you know!" exclaimed the girl.

The orange-haired boy felt his patience wearing thin. "I don't care what the hollow's name is, just move aside."

The girl looked at him more closely. She slightly gasped. The girl's glare hardened. "Oh I get it now, you're a soul reaper aren't you?"

Ichigo's eyes widened. "How did you know that?"

The girl ignored his question and looked back toward the hollow behind her. "Run Ryoku! Go!"

The hollow held his wounded arm. He looked at her uncertainly. **"But Karasu—"**

The girl, now known as Karasu, yelled, "GO!"

With one last look at the girl the hollow turned and disappeared. Ichigo cursed under his breath. The hollow got away. He turned his attention to the girl. He walked up to her and grabbed her wrist. "What the hell do you think you're doing! That thing was dangerous and you let it get away!"

Karasu struggled against his grip. She started hitting his arm. "Let go you stupid soul reaper!"

Ichigo grabbed her other wrist. "And the other thing, how do you know I'm a soul reaper? That's not common knowledge to humans."

The black-haired girl growled. "I said LET GO!"

Suddenly Ichigo was sent flying. He crashed into a wall, creating a huge hole. The substitute laid on his back, his face scrunched in pain. He slowly sat up. His hand flew to his stomach. _'How did she do that? I had both her hands restricted, there was no way she could have thrown a punch.'_ Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. _'There is no way a kid like her could have that much strength either.'_

The Kurosaki stood and walked to the hole. He climbed out of it and looked up at the girl. He gasped. Wind that was blowing caused the girl's hair to move away from her face. What looked like a piece of a hollow's mask covered the girl's right eye. A single blue stripe went down horizontally across the eye. The girl's hollow eye glared at him. Ichigo felt his eyes widen. _'Is she… an arrancar?'_

_**Ch.1- Human or Hollow?**_

Urahara Shop…

"So let me get this straight…" Rukia Kuchiki looked down at a sitting Ichigo when he had finished his story. She crossed her arms. "You were about to attack a hollow, but a girl stopped you?"

The orange-haired boy nodded. "Yup, that's right."

"And where is this girl now?"

Ichigo scowled. "Like I told you, she ran off before I could catch her."

Renji Abarai, leaning against the wall, looked at the ground. He then looked up at the group. "You said she had a mask, is she an arrancar?"

The Kurosaki scratched his head. "I wondered that myself. It's possible..." He looked down at his stomach, remember what had happened. "But she couldn't move her arms, yet she was able to punch me."

Kisuke Urahara fanned himself. He smiled, "Maybe she kicked you."

The orange-haired boy shook his head. "No, what I felt was a punch."

Rukia closed her eyes. "If this girl is an arrancar, we need to find her and question her." She opened her eyes and turned her attention to Ichigo. "What does she look like?"

The substitute soul reaper crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He thought for a moment and looked up at the group. "She had dark colored hair, light skin, her left eye is green, and she's about Rukia's height. Oh, and her hair might be covering her right eye."

The Kuchiki pulled out her cell and typed down the description. "I'll send this to the others." She sent the message to Yasutora "Chad" Sado, Orihime Inoue, and Uryu Ishida. She closed her phone. "It will be easier to find her if the others know what she looks like."

Renji grabbed his zanpakto from the wall. "So now what?"

"Now…" Rukia gave a serious look to the group, "We find this girl."

Orihime's cell lit up. On the screen it said, "1 New Message." Unfortunately, the girl's phone was left on her kitchen table. The girl herself was walking down the street, grocery bags in hand. She smiled and hummed to herself. She was planning on something new to eat for lunch. Peanut butter and tuna? Rice and jelly? Maybe even both together.

Not paying attention to her surroundings, she didn't notice the girl walking around the corner. BAM! The two crashed into each other. Orihime fell to the ground, spilling the contents of her bag. She sat up and started picking up her things. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you." A hand started helping her pick her things up. She looked up at the girl. The girl was looking down as she picked things up. Her dark black hair covered the right side of her face.

The girl held out the items to the Inoue. "Here are your groceries."

The orange-haired girl took the things from the younger girl. "Thank you." She stood up and grabbed her bags. But as she grabbed them, one of the bags ripped, spilling its contents. Orihime sighed.

The girl crouched down once again and picked up the items. She stood and turned her attention to Orihime. "Do you want help carrying this stuff?"

The day dreaming girl nodded. "Yes, I would appreciate it." She tucked the ripped bag in one of the other bags and held out her hand to the girl. "By the way, I'm Orihime Inoue."

The girl looked at her hand for a moment. She slowly reached out and grasped it. They shook hands. The black-haired girl smiled at her. "I'm Karasu Koutei. It's nice to meet you."

The two started walking. The Inoue turned to the Koutei. "Are you new in town? I haven't seen you before."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, just moved here yesterday."

"Where do you live?" asked the orange-haired girl.

The raven-haired girl looked toward the ground. "At the edge of town."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen…"

"Are you in the ninth grade?"

Karasu gave Orihime an odd look. "What's this, twenty questions?"

The Inoue smiled. "Maybe…"

The Koutei returned it. "Ok, just wondering."

The two finally arrived at Orihime's house. The orange-haired girl reached into her pocket in search of her key. She found it and unlocked the door. The raven-haired girl looked over her shoulder and saw a huge shadow standing across the street. The girl lifted her hand and made the 'shooing' motion. The figure's shoulder slumped and disappeared.

Orihime walked into the house, then noticed the other girl didn't follow her. She looked back at her, seeing her looking off into the distance. She too, looked in the direction. "What's wrong? Do you see something?"

The green-eyed girl quickly turned around and entered the house. "Nothing, nothing at all. Hey, where do you want this?"

The Inoue girl smiled and pointed to the kitchen. "Oh, just put it on the table please."

The black-haired girl moved to the kitchen. She placed the groceries on the table. She looked up and scanned the inside of the house. It was a small place, a living room, bathroom, kitchen and that was it. It made sense to Karasu. The girl must live alone here, so she wouldn't need much space. She was brought out of her thoughts hearing a tap against the window. She turned to it and her eyes widened. A shadow was in front of it, tapping the glass. The green-eyed girl quickly ran to it and closed the curtains.

Orihime came in the kitchen and sat her groceries on the table. She saw the girl rush to the kitchen window and closed the curtains. She tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong?" she asked.

The girl turned around and chuckled nervously. She waved her arms in the air. "Oh, I just don't like the sunshine much!"

The grey-eyed girl looked at her curiously. "Okay…"

The Koutei started heading for the door. "Well I'm gonna get going…"

The girl stopped when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked over her shoulder at Orihime. The older girl smiled. "Would you like to stay for lunch?" she asked.

The green-eyed girl shook her head. "No thanks, I'm not—" a growl filled the air. The girl blushed and laughed, "Uh, sure."

**Five minutes later…**

"Here you go, one tuna salad." The Inoue sat the plate in front of her guest. Karasu looked at the food. The orange-haired girl had mixed rice, tuna, peanut butter and grape jelly for lunch. It was… colorful… and weird looking. The black-haired girl picked up her fork and poked the food to see if it was alive. She looked across the table at her hostess, who was happily eating her lunch.

She turned her attention back to the food and got a fork full of it. She slowly inserted it into her mouth. She chewed the sticky substance and swallowed. It tasted… good, surprisingly. She started eating more of it, until it was all gone. She looked up at the other girl and was about to say thank you, when she realized her mouth was sticky from peanut butter. She grabbed her glass of milk and chugged it.

She sat the glass down and turned her attention to her hostess. "Thank you, it was delicious." She stood and grabbed her dishes and putted them in the sink. She turned and headed for the door. She opened it and looked back over her shoulder. "Thanks, I… hope we can hang out sometime." she said smiling.

Orihime smiled back. "Definitely, come back anytime you want."

The Koutei nodded and left out the door, closing it behind her. The Inoue then noticed her phone was on the table. She picked it up and opened it. She saw she had a message. She opened it and read the note. Her eyes widened when she read the description. She looked up at the door. _'That girl… she could be an arrancar?'_ she bit her lip, _'But I didn't sense anything… I better follow her.'_ With the decision made she stood up and went out the door.

She came out of the house and saw the girl just turning the corner. She followed behind. Orihime made sure she was a good three yards away from Karasu, making sure not to be spotted. As she followed the girl, she noticed they were heading to the more deserted part of town. The grey-eyed girl thought this was suspicious. Being an arrancar, it would be a good place to hide.

The black haired girl stopped in front of an old warehouse. She opened the door and slipped inside. The orange-haired girl silently walked up to the door. She opened it just a crack in and looked inside. Her eyes widened. Standing before Karasu were two people, one male, one female. The man had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and was at least two feet taller than the Koutei. He wore a white suit with a black under shirt and white dress shoes. The left side of his face was covered with a white mask with a green line design.

The woman standing next to him had blond hair and violet eyes. She wore a white jacket, black long skirt, and black high heels. Around her neck appeared to be a white choker with a teeth design. Suddenly a little girl came running from behind a crate. The girl had white hair and blue eyes, she wore a blue kimono with white flower designs. On her face were blue teardrop designs and on her wrist was a white bracelet with a small skull on it. She jumped into the waiting arms of Karasu. "Kara!" the girl squealed happily.

The green-eyed girl hugged the younger girl. "Hey Shin, you've been good to Kenshin and Kuroneko?"

The blue-eyed girl nodded. "Yup, and I got to play Rihatsu all day."

"Yeah…" the four turned their attention to an approaching figure. It was a boy. He had dark blue hair, green eyes and wore a white vest and black jeans with black shoes. On top of his head were what appeared to be skull goggles. The boy known as Rihatsu rubbed his shoulder, "I had to give her like 50 piggy back rides."

Everyone laughed. Orihime stared at the group. They looked like arrancars, but sertainly didn't act like them. Why were they acting so… happy and nice? She turned her attention back to the group. The blond woman known as Kuroneko, looked at the Koutei and smiled. "How was your day?" she asked.

The black-haired girl grinned at the group. "It was great, I met this human who seemed really nice. I plan on visiting her again tomorrow." The girl then noticed something. She putted the girl known as Shin, down on the ground. "Where's Ryoku? Isn't he back yet?"

The man known as Kenshin spoke up, "He should be back soon." His face became concerned. "Why? Did something happen?"

"Well you see, we ran into a…"

Before the grey-eyed girl could hear what she was about to say, a came from behind her. "What are you doing?" it asked.

_**To be continued…**_

**I hope you liked Chapter One.**

**Ryoku- Strength**

**Rihatsu- Intelligence**

**Kuroneko- Black Cat**

**Kenshin- Devotion**

**Shin- Heart**

**Karasu Koutei- Raven Flight**

**WARNING!****: I have never tried the rice, tuna, peanut butter, and jelly salad, do not attempt to make it and consume it… but if you **_**really**_** wanted to try it, go ahead (your funeral).**

**Please ****Review****, giving ****reviews**** makes me happy and if I'm happy, I write more.**


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